About this property
The Hillsgrove Covered Bridge is a Burr arch truss covered bridge over Loyalsock Creek in Hillsgrove Township, Sullivan County, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It was built around 1850 and is 186 feet (56.7 m) long. In 1973, it became the first covered bridge in the county to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The bridge is named for the township and nearby unincorporated village of Hillsgrove, and is also known as Rinkers Covered Bridge for an adjoining farm. Pennsylvania had the first covered bridge in the United States, and has had the most such bridges since the 19th century. They were a transition between stone and metal bridges, with the roof and sides protecting the wooden structure from the weather. The Hillsgrove bridge has load-bearing Burr arches sandwiching multiple vertical king posts on each side, for strength and rigidity. It was built by Sadler Rodgers, who also constructed the nearby Forksville Covered Bridge in the same year, with a similar design. The Hillsgrove bridge is the longest of three covered bridges remaining in Sullivan County, and served as a landing site for lumber rafts on the creek between 1870 and 1890. Nineteenth-century regulations restricting speed, number of animals, and fire are still posted on the bridge. Restoration work was carried out in 1963, 1968, 2010, and again in 2012 after serious flood damage. The bridge is still in use, with average daily traffic of 54 vehicles in 2012. Despite these restorations, it had a "structurally deficient" rating in the 2012 National Bridge Inventory, with a 16.5 percent structural sufficiency rating.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Hillsgrove Covered Bridge
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Questions about this property
When was Hillsgrove Covered Bridge listed on the National Register?
Hillsgrove Covered Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 1, 1973.
What type of historic resource is Hillsgrove Covered Bridge?
Hillsgrove Covered Bridge is classified as a structure in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Hillsgrove Covered Bridge?
The period of significance for Hillsgrove Covered Bridge is recorded as the civil_war era, specifically around 1850.
Can I research the history near Hillsgrove Covered Bridge?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Hillsgrove Covered Bridge will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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